A message?

[Carol]

No: HPFGUIDX 178910

Prep0strus wrote:
<snip>

> ~Adam (Prep0strus), who wishes he had a nugget of an idea of some
other topic to bring up here, to inspire someone to write something on
an entirely different topic, but coming up short.

Carol responds:

My goodness, yes! Let's find a topic that isn't House-Elves,
Slytherin, the Elder Wand, or JKR's recent revelations.

I'm just going to brainstorm, listing some possibilities. 

Characters:
We can look at the characters in some new way, either by focusing on a
character who hasn't been frequently discussed (say, Xenophilius
Lovegood Luna or Mr. Ollivander or Rita Skeeter) or by looking at the
usual characters in a new way. Instead of focusing on motivation and
development or relationships between characters (the usual focus), we
could try looking at the influence of one character on another or what
the inclusion of some minor character (say, Stan Shunpike or Zacharias
Smith or Dirk Cresswell) adds to the book. What seems to be his or her
purpose?

Plot:
I'm at a loss for new ideas here since we seem to be endlessly
discussing plot arcs. Can anyone think of any subplots that haven't
been given due attention or a reason for discussing them?

Symbols, themes, and motifs:
We've talked about the Elder Wand and the other Hallows but
surprisingly little about the Horcruxes, including Nagini. There's
also, of course, the Christian symbolism, death and the afterlife, the
importance of choice, love and friendship, courage. Less obviously,
there's the loss of home comforts and its effects on personality or
disposition (hungry!Ron), jealousy, misperception, the nature of
magic. . . . What am I overlooking that hasn't been discussed that
others think is important?

The writer's craft:
We've said virtually nothing about JKR's techniques as a writer
(unless we count *someone's* posts on the unreliable narrator). what
about her use of setting (Gothic trappings, maybe), atmosphere,
dialogue, description, foreshadowing, misdirection? How does she
create suspense or humor or horror? How does she go about creating a
character and making him or her "real" to the reader?

Other perspectives:
I like textual analysis but that's the usual approach around here, and
it's not the only possible approach. We've seen a little too much
discussion (IMO) of the author's intentions, and we don't know enough
about her to spot biographical elements, but we can discuss the books
in terms of genre or structure or the influence of other authors or
the use of elements from folklore and mythology. Literary critics also
write from a variety of perspectives, many of which I'm loath even to
name, including deconstruction (anyone out there want to attempt that
one?), Jungian (archetypal) criticism, Freudian criticism (Betsy took
a stab at that one--I wouldn't touch it, myself), Marxist and feminist
criticism, linguistic criticism (we could examine her use of language
in naming spells, characters, authors of fictuional books, puns,
etc.). I'm sure there are other approaches I've forgotten, and I
confess that I'm including perspectives here that I personally have no
use for but have a feeling might appeal to others on this list.

That's it, folks. I'm out of ideas. Anyone else care to brainstorm or
follow up on one of these ideas?

Carol, who wondered if Mad-Eye's eyeball had any connection to Greek
mythology and stumbled onto this unorthodox and mildly entertaining
(but completely OT) version of the Perseus legend:

http://www.mythweb.com/encyc/entries/perseus.html